School budget won’t ensure all jobs, programs

Sunday

Apr 19, 2009 at 12:01 AM

By Dana BeyerleMontgomery Bureau Chief

MONTGOMERY | Not even smoke and mirrors can save lawmakers this year.The fourth version of next fiscal year’s state education budget will be unveiled this week in the Legislature, but no matter how many times it changes, cuts will be unavoidable.Legislators will not be able to protect all public education jobs and programs, state education leaders said last week.“When you’re short $125 million, you have programs you don’t have enough money to cover,” Alabama Education Association Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert said. “Some programs will be hurt more than others.”The chairman of the Senate Finance and Taxation Education Budget Committee, Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, said the updated version of the Education Trust Fund budget for 2009-10 will be submitted as soon as Tuesday. The Legislature has nine working days remaining in the 2009 regular session to pass the education and general fund budgets, although both have usually come down to the last day, even in less fiscally lean years.Gov. Bob Riley submitted his original education budget to the Legislature in February and has modified it twice since then to reflect changes stemming from federal stimulus money. But the $513 million in federal funds won’t be enough to cover shrinking state dollars, leaving the budget unable to fund all programs and jobs.State school Superintendent Joe Morton told lawmakers that Riley’s budget would protect about 3,800 teacher jobs, but not up to 3,900 support jobs.Hubbert said the situation is worse than portrayed. He said Riley’s budget won’t protect about 1,100 teacher jobs and about 4,000 support jobs.Riley’s budget relies on federal dollars, leaving too many jobs in limbo with no guarantee anyone will be rehired this summer for next fall’s school year, Hubbert said.Hubbert said some federal stimulus money are at the discretion of local school superintendents, risking “too many jobs, too many people.” “There’s a scenario in which the teachers could be taken care of but you have to have 131 systems making the same specific decisions about spending the money in the classroom that the state superintendent said should be spent,” he said. “There’s no way to control that.” Morton told public school system superintendents last week that talk about “people over programs” means the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, the Alabama Reading Initiative, and the Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide programs could be in danger.Riley said that those programs, funded at $135 million, are dear to him.“These three ‘programs’ were initially targeted for zero state funding for [fiscal year 2010] in budget discussions to offer a substitute to Governor Riley’s budget,” Morton said. “Zero versus $135 million creates a broad divide.” Morton said the programs employ nearly 1,700 people, giving new meaning to “people over programs” when “fully analyzed.” The deepening recession has hammered the income and sales tax revenues that the education budget relies on.The proposed 2009-10 ETF budget, which funds K-12 and higher education, is $5.64 billion, $182 million less than the current fiscal year’s education budget. Just two budget years ago, the budget was $6.7 billion.Subtracting higher education’s 32 percent share of the budget leaves K-12 schools about $125 million short of 2008-09 funding levels.“I think everyone’s goal is to save as many jobs as we can and protect as many programs as we can,” said Rep. Richard Lindsey, D-Centre, chairman of the House Education Appropriations Committee. “I believe we can protect most jobs.” Hubbert, whose union represents teachers and support personnel, said he’s looking at program funding cuts, which he said doesn’t automatically mean service cuts, because some programs have funding that isn’t being used.“When you’re short $125 million, you’ve got some programs you funded in the past that won’t be funded,” Hubbert said. “There’s going to be some cuts but we are trying our best to make certain our classrooms are staffed and the schools maintained and clean.” Hubbert, in his 40th year at the AEA, said he’s engaged in possibly his toughest struggle since early in his career, when he fought off Gov. George Wallace’s attempted raid of the teacher’s retirement fund.“We think we will be able to work through this problem,” he said.